73. Peter repeats his confession, that Jesus is the Messiah. Matt. xvi. Luke ix.

On his way to the borders of Cæsarea Philippi, Jesus enquired of his Apostles what notion the people had formed of him, and having been told their several opinions, he enquired as to their own. The Son of Man, the title by which he here and in several other places designates himself, is never given to him by others, and was probably assumed, both as a mark of humility, and as pointing to the nature which he had taken into union with his deity, to enable him by undergoing suffering to atone for the sins of mankind, and to exalt the race to a dignity and happiness superior to that from which the progenitor fell; namely, not merely to original human perfection, but to the partaking of the divine nature; to be the temples of the holy Spirit. Thus, where sin did abound, divine grace not only brought the remedy, but did much more abound. The term occurs in the Old Testament, generally as an oriental idiom for man himself; God is not the son of man that he should repent, Numb. xxiii. 19. and Ezekiel is so addressed by the angel, to mark the difference, it should seem, between their respective natures. But our Lord uses it to show that he is the second Adam, the new covenant head and elder brother of the race, under whom, more completely than his type the original man, God hath placed all things in subjection, and whom he has crowned with honour, by exalting him to the throne of the universe, and requiring not only men but angels to worship him. Under this very title he had been designated by Daniel, “Behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days; and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him." To this passage he himself draws attention, not only in the parable, Matt. xxv. in which he describes himself as coming in his glory to judge the world, but when, upon his trial, he announced his second

advent in glorious majesty. His Apostles, when they speak of his priestly office, emphatically dwell upon his human nature, as, There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. ii. 5. By man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead, 1 Cor. xv. 21. The second man is a quickening Spirit, ver. 47. And Anti-Trinitarians, not perceiving the reason of this reference to the nature he assumed, catch at such expressions as evidence of his simple humanity. But they should remark, that the beloved Apostle, Rev. i. 13. gives him this very title, when he describes him as appearing in a glory too intense for mortal senses to contemplate, and while he declares him to be the Almighty, the first and the last; and that he himself employs it, when he drew forth Peter's blessed affirmation of his divinity, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? thereby connecting his two natures; Peter, with his usual promptitude, replied for all," The Messiah, the Son of the living God." Our Lord pronounced him happy, as this conviction of the truth proceeded not from man's teaching, nor from his own reflection, but had been revealed to him by the Father; and this high commendation proves that it was genuine. It was, however, imperfect, for he knew not as yet that redemption was to be purchased by his Lord's blood, who was to be the Priest as well as the King of his Church. He took occasion from the name, (IIérgos,) Peter, (stone,) which he had given him, to declare, that upon this rock, (Terga,) that is, upon this confession of his divinity and his office, which includes atonement, and all the essential doctrines dependent on it, he would build his Church, and that the gates of Hades, or the grave, should never prevail against it. The prophecy has been wonderfully accomplished, for neither the power nor policy of men, neither the rage of persecuting emperors, nor the more dangerous craft of Julian, could overpower the Church at a time when no human authority maintained it; and in the dark ages, real Christianity flourished unnoticed in a few obscure Alpine valleys, when the rest of Europe was sunk in the deepest ignorance,

and the Bible was almost unknown. The religion of Mohammed has nearly banished it from the lesser Asia, the field of its earliest triumphs, and even from its native land; and the candlestick of northern Africa, the land of Cyprian, Tertullian, and Augustine, the scene of so many martyrdoms and triumphs of the faith, has been long removed; but the promise is not to any particular community, but to the universal Church, and when the light has been extinguished in one country, it has been kindled in another. Thus, what has been lost in Africa and Asia, has been more than compensated by its progress in the new world, and its recent triumphs in the South Sea.

From this discourse the Roman Catholics deduce their doctrine of the pope's supremacy, as successor to Peter, as the representative of his Master, and governor of his Church: and some Protestant commentators allow that Christ here builds his Church upon the person of Peter, understanding, however, no more by this than is conveyed in the following words, "To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven;" which seems to denote, that he was the individual chosen to open the Church both to Jews and Gentiles, as we know from the book of Acts that he did. The power of binding and loosing, or of commanding and prohibiting what was to be done or omitted in the Church, is afterwards assigned to all, so that the possession of the keys is the only privilege peculiar to Peter. That privilege, it is evident, gave him no higher authority than the other Apostles; for, subsequent to this, we find them disputing who should be the chief: nor did he ever advance any such claim, but in his Epistles simply calls himself an Apostle, and exhorts the elders as being himself an elder, 1 Pet. v. 1. It did not even give him an honorary precedence, for though we find him present at the council of Jerusalem, James presided; and Paul we know on one occasion publicly withstood him, Gal. ii. 11. A power then which he never possessed could not be transmitted; nor can the bishops of Rome even prove that they are his successors. The papist, we see, derives little support

from Scripture, though we should yield to him that the Church was founded upon the person of Peter; and still less, if we adopt Chrysostom's interpretation, which builds it upon his confession, and which is more according to the analogy of faith; for, properly speaking, it is built upon our blessed Master, as Isaiah (xxviii. 16.) expresses it, "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation ;" and St. Paul, in his comparison of the Church to a material fabric, seems to mark the equality of its ministers in this respect, "Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Ephes. ii. 20.

74. Jesus plainly foretells his death and resurrection, rebukes Peter, and exhorts them all to self-denial. Matt. xvi. Mark viii. Luke ix.

HAVING elicited the confession of his being the Messiah, and having confirmed its truth by the authority he in consequence committed to Peter, he proceeded to reveal more explicitly than he had done hitherto the real nature of his reign, and checked their rising hopes of immediate wealth and dignity, by declaring that he must go to Jerusalem, not to assume sovereignty, but to be put to death. This was so contrary to the worldly triumph that they anticipated, that Peter, who had overlooked the predictions of an afflicted and rejected Messiah, and was perhaps elated by the commendation he had just received, took his Master aside, or by the hand, and with a mixture of affection and ignorance expressed his hope that he was mistaken. Jesus rebuked him in the very words that he did the devil, "Get thee behind me, Satan," or enemy, adding, "thou art a stumbling-block to me," that is, he tempted him to decline the cross; to give up, on account of the suffering and the shame, the great work which he had come into the world to accomplish, declaring that he did not relish (goveiv) the spiritual things of God,

but the things of man, such as ease, honour, and riches. He then called the people to him, as self-denial was equally the duty of all, and said, that whoever was disposed to follow him must deny his natural inclinations, and must be ready, if called upon, even to die in his cause; but that whoever was faithful unto death, would hereafter receive an adequate recompense, as much more valuable than earthly life, as that life is to the enjoyments that accompany it, and which can profit nothing the person that is about to quit it. And to strengthen them to endure the temporary privations to which he called them, he brought before their minds the future judgment, declaring that when he came in glory he would then be ashamed of those who now were ashamed of him. Probably there was some expression of incredulity upon their countenances, as he cautioned them against unbelief, and declared that some who were present should not die till they saw him coming in his kingdom. That generation has long since passed away, and Christ has not yet come in his own glory, and in that of his Father, to reward every man according to his work. Some other mode then, besides the obvious one, must be devised of explaining his meaning; and some interpret it of his exhibiting himself six days after, to his three most confidential Apostles, in that original glory, of which he had divested himself while on earth. This, the opinion of Chrysostom, is ably supported by Bishop Porteus. Others apply it to that period, when our Lord, being perfected by sufferings, divested himself of the form of a servant, and ascended to his Father, when he properly commenced his reign, and came in glory, by sending down on his followers the gift of the Holy Ghost; and not long after came, through the arrangements of his providence, to remove that great obstacle to its progress, the temple of Jerusalem. And as St. John outlived that event, either is equally suitable; the last perhaps most so, as the expression seems to assure a considerable interval of time. The kingdom too had not then properly commenced, and the transfiguration was not so much the commencement as the anticipation of it. His dis